Castletime Mystery
by sbyamibakura
Summary: Snarry, set Year 7. At Hogwarts this Christmas there is a Game going on; you have two days to figure out the clues you are given and a Partner will be assigned at random to help you...


Castletime Mystery

By: PhoenixJustice

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is property of J.K Rowling, Warner Bros. and people who aren't me. I only own this story and make no profit from this.

Warning: rated T for language, slash, etc.

Pairings: Snarry, Sirius/Draco (don't ask me why; it popped into my head and refused to go away.)

Setting: Year Seven AU-Sirius and Dumbledore didn't die, possible spoilers for the books.

Summary: At Hogwarts this Christmas there is a Game going on; you have two days to figure out the clues you are given and a Partner will be assigned at random to help you...

: :: : : :: :

"This time around, we Staff decided to give you all who still remain something more to enjoy." said Dumbledore, looking around at the sparse amount of people left. Most left for Christmas with their loved ones, so there were only so many left around this time. "So we've made a Game for you."

With a flick of his wand, pieces of parchment float down in front of everyone.

"Instructions are written on there. The Game will last for two days and shall be concluded on Christmas night. There is a prize for whomever wins." Dumbledore smiles, eyes twinkling. "Or perhaps it would be best to say, which _two _people win, for the Game is to be done in pairs."

A Ravenclaw girl raises her hand. "When can we start?"

"As soon as your partners are chosen." Dumbledore replies back to the girl, and everyone else in the room. "You will be given partners at different times and places to ensure privacy and no one will know ahead of time who they will be partnered with until the right time."

: :: : : :: :

Draco lets out a long, loud sigh.

"That old codger-what if I get someone horrible for a partner. Like you!" He points at Harry with a finger.

Harry, merely rolls his eyes and snorts. "Same to you, Draco." His face becomes more serious. "But really, what's up with the whole random partners thing? I guess because there's so few of us or something?"

"Look at you, Potter! Using your brain and everything!" He becomes serious too. "Suppose you're right-not that I like admitting that!-but I just wish that whoever I'm supposed to be partnered with would hurry and show up."

Almost exactly after Draco stops speaking, the piece of parchment in his hands starts glowing.

"Looks like you got your wish." Harry points out.

Draco spares Harry a glance as he starts to run off. "Later, Potter! See you after I win!"

Harry shakes his head, amused. He starts to leave the corridor where they had been speaking and starts to turn a corner when he bumps into someone. Literally. He lets out a gasp and takes a step back, nearly falling. He hears a grunt and some grumbling.

"And what do you think you're doing running around in the corridors, Mister Potter? Five points from Gryffindor." said a silky voice.

He looks up to see black. Black shoes, black pants, black cloak, black hair...oh crap.

"I wasn't running, I was walking." Snape raises a brow in warning. "But, er...sorry anyway."

Snape looks skeptical, but after a moment snorts and starts to brush past him.

"Be more mindful in the future, Potter. After all, some of us have-"

He stops as does Harry. His eyebrows raise as his paper glows. Letters, in a silvery glow, start to appear on the parchment. A name. ...A really familiar name.

"Buggering hell." Snape says crossly.

Indeed.

Harry's paper said, quite clearly, _Severus Snape._ And after hearing Snape's reaction, he was sure that Snape's said _Harry Potter._

: :: : : :: :

"We will do this my way; quickly and efficiently. Just because you don't use your brain ninety-nine percent of the time doesn't give you the right to slack off in this case, like you do in my class."

"Oi! I don't-"

"Two points for cheek. As I was saying, firstly we should take a close look at these 'clues'," Snape's mouth turns downward. "That Professor Dumbledore gave us. They may be easy to solve."

He sets their papers side by side on the desk. After a few minutes of grumbling under his breath, he glares at Harry and all but hauls him to the Potions classroom, where they were now stationed at Snape's desk, with Harry pulling up a chair to sit as well. (Too bad it wasn't the comfy looking one Snape had.)

It was apparent very quickly, to Harry at least-he didn't know about Snape-, that there was something off about what they received.

"They're different." he mutters.

He could feel Snape's eyes bore into him, but tries his best to ignore the cold black gaze.

"Explain."

"See...here." he felt a little awkward being so close to the Potions Master like this but trudges on. He points to Snape's paper. "The phrasing is different than in mine. Something about the statue of Merlin and the bust of Merlin. And-" He glances over at Snape and he stills as he takes in his face. What was...but before he can put a name to what he saw, Snape's face closes off to the haughty look he usually had reserved for Harry.

"What?" Snape barks. "Get on with it already, Potter."

Harry turns back to the papers nonplussed, not noticing one of Snape's hands clenching into a fist.

: :: : : :: :

There were quite a few objects in the school that related to Merlin, but as to the things mentioned in their papers, there was only a statue of Merlin, on the third floor corridor. As large as the school was Harry thought it easily possible that he might have missed a bust of Merlin but Snape shot that down. He was a teacher, so he knew more than almost anyone about the various things in the school (except perhaps the Marauders, but that was a _very _touchy subject for the man so he wouldn't go there.)

They both searched the statue quite thoroughly, but nothing seemed to be unusual about it. While Harry looks around the thing, Snape takes out his wand, tapping it on the statue and muttering under his breath. Harry glances up at him, kneeling down as he looks at the statue's feet (he was definitely running out of ideas.)

The older man looked irritated-not a surprise-but somehow this seemed a bit different from his usual irritation at things. There seemed to be a almost childlike pouting going on beneath those black eyes of his. Harry grins for a moment before looking down quickly, realizing what he was doing. Really now! What was wrong with him? Forced to look for things with Snape and...what, exactly?

He keeps himself busy for a few moments before feeling a finger very pointedly poke at his head.

"Hey! What's the big idea!" He grabs his head, looking up.

Snape stares down at him, arms crossed over his chest with an eyebrow raised.

"Done checking Merlin's foot size, Potter?" Before Harry can let out a retort Snape continues. "There's nothing here. I've done every kind of check I can think of."

"What about the bust then? Sir?" he adds after Snape's warning look.

Snape lets out a small sigh, rubbing at his eyes.

"I already said it doesn't exist, Potter. What part of that do you not get? There must be something else we're missing."

: :: : : :: :

After a few awkward moments of silence, Snape glares at him and tells him to go look around himself while he looked another way. Since he didn't have any ideas himself, he went along with that.

He lets out a loud sigh. What was going on? It seemed like there was something he was missing, but he didn't understand what.

He paces around the corridor a bit. Think, Harry, think! A bust of Merlin. A bust. A bust...wait a minute!

He stops. There was a bust he remembered seeing in the Room of Requirement. It was unlike any he had seen in the castle. And as to the other busts, Snape vouched for what they were, so they weren't what they were looking for. This was the only unknown one left. So...

He turns as he sees a shimmer out of the corner of his eye and a door appears where the wall once was. He glances around, realizing that he had been standing in front of the Room of Requirement all along.

He opens the door.

: :: : : :: :

Books and various odds and ends were stacked high, nearly to the ceiling in some places. So how the hell was he supposed to find a regular sized bust? Wait, wasn't it by a gilded birdcage? So if he just looked for the birdcage...

He lets out a little cheer as he finds what he's looking for, after rifling through one of the many piles. Then stops, straining his ears as he thinks he hears something.

"Shouldn't we, ah, be looking for the bust?"

"But I'd rather look at _your _bust, if you get my drift."

He makes his way closer, holding onto the small bust carefully, to the sound of the voices-two male voices at that. Huh. Well it wasn't the first time he caught a pair of boys snogging.

"If someone caught us, you'd probably get in a lot of trouble."

"Probably."

"You don't sound too worried."

"Eh, well teaching was never what I planned to do in the first place. That's more Moony's thing."

"Hey, don't mention another guy when we're-mmph..."

Harry stops cold. He must have passed out. Some sort of knockout gas or someone hit him on the head-maybe with the bust he couldn't find, because he couldn't possibly be seeing what he thought he was seeing.

"_Sirius? Draco?_"

The aforementioned pair pull apart; they both look startled.

"Harry! I-er, well you see..." Sirius starts, red suffusing his face.

"Looks like you found it first." Draco says, frowning. But then a moment later he smiles, or rather smirks. "Oh well, I found what _I _was looking for, so don't mind us-"

He stares at them, unable to say anything; his brain wasn't functioning properly enough for that. After a moment he grabs the bust that had fallen out of his hands but somehow kept from breaking and turns around, walking away and out the door, either ignoring or not hearing Sirius call for him behind him.

: :: : : :: :

Snape finds him after awhile.

He hadn't made it very far; he was sitting on the floor, face on his updrawn knees with the bust sitting beside him.

"So this is where you've been all this time, Potter?"

He jumps at the sound of the older man's voice. He looks up. Was it just him or did Snape look not so irritated as usual? In fact he looked...

Snape kneels in front of him, one of his hands moving to brush some errant hair out of Harry's face; a futile gesture but the meaning was all too clear to Harry as the man's fingers linger longer than necessary.

Holy crap.

"I. Uh...well let's just say I'm not good at picking up things." Harry starts. Snape snorts. "I didn't even know that Draco and Sirius were. Er, nevermind. I meant-"

"Finally realized, Potter? The entire school quickly found out days after it started. Draco isn't discreet _all _the time."

"Urgh. Anyway! What I'm trying to get at is that there's been these weird mixed signals between us all day and-"

He lets out a small squeak as Snape leans forward, kissing him thoroughly quiet. A moment later his arms wrap around the older man's, kissing him back, the bust-and the Game-quite forgotten.

: :: : : :: :

OMAKE

"I knew you had it in you two! I knew making this _Dating _Game was the right idea!" said Dumbledore's voice out of nowhere.

They glance around but don't see anything. They look down at the bust in Harry's hand.

They glance at each other, the bust, then run away.

: :: : : :: :

OMAKE 2

"I knew you had it in you two! I knew making this _Dating _Game was the right idea!" said Dumbledore's voice out of nowhere.

They glance around but don't see anything. They look down at the bust in Harry's hand.

"Damnit, stop meddling in everyone's affairs you barmy old codger!" Snape throws down the bust.

"You'll thank me for this, Severus!" the bust says. They look at the now ominous looking bust. Was there a twinkle in the bust's eye? "Especially tonight." The bust chortles.

They glance at each other, the bust, then run away.

: :: : : :: :

A/N: Well! This fic is finally done! I hope it turned out well. The majority of this was written at nearly four in the morning so I hope it's coherent! lol. I got a lot of inspiration in the end after reading some BL (Boys Love) manga, though the themes and characters of the manga I was reading was nothing like these at all. But the lightheartedness of said manga drew me to make this more of a lighthearted, crack-ish fic.

Also, I blame late night writing for the Sirius/Draco. Never even really considered the pairing, but now I do after writing about them... *sigh*

I hope you enjoyed this!

Let me know what you thought!

-PhoenixJustice


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